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The Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost
Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right, that we, who cannot exist without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 14)
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The Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost
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Scripture citation(s): John 6:35, 41-51; Ephesians 4:25–5:2
A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
on
John 6:35, 41-51; Ephesians 4:25–5:2
✛
Becoming food for the world
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Bread is a staple food – something I experienced as a boy growing up in Yorkshire on a housing estate in which you found bread at every meal. In some respects that is not dissimilar to any home in France or Italy where bread is offered before even a glass of wine. I remember once arriving in the South West of France with some friends after a long journey – we were famished but all the restaurants were closing and no one wanted to serve us. In desperation we tried a small non-descript restaurant in a village where they were sweeping the floor – the cook came out “We are hungry!” we said plaintively in our school-boy French. “But I have no bread!” came the response. “It doesn’t matter,” we said, “We are British!” And smiling, she prepared the most delicious meal for us; her hospitality was gracious and kind.
The great spiritual writer Henri Nouwen once said this: “As God’s beloved children we have to believe that our little lives, when lived as God’s chosen and blessed children, are broken to be given to others. We too have to become bread for the world.” (Bread for the Journey p.222).
Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ means being a part of the sign by which God’s glory is revealed and shared. At one and the same time we receive Christ into ourselves and give ourselves to him and make ourselves part of the community of faith which is his body broken on earth. That is why St Paul urges the Church in Corinth to be very careful about receiving Communion for it is more than symbolic and more than a gesture of personal faith.
Thomas Merton said “The Christian life is nothing else but Christ living in us, by his Holy Spirit. It is Christ’s love, sharing itself with us in charity. It is Christ in us, loving the Father, by his Spirit. It is Christ uniting us to our brothers [and sisters] by charity in the bond of this same Spirit.” (The Living Bread p.18)
One of the great characteristics of Saint Thomas Church is its centrality on the Eucharist. All that we do and all that we hope to be is shaped by our participation in the Eucharist. As the bread is taken, consecrated, broken and shared so that becomes a pattern for our community life here in Manhattan and in our homes and in our places of work. Christ calls each one of us by name – Christ consecrates each one of us through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit but if we are to be truly a Eucharistic Community then we also need embrace our brokenness in order for that love to be shared.
On Saturday mornings week by week without fail a small band of volunteers gathers in the Parish House to prepare food for the homeless. I think it is very significant that at the heart of each bagged lunch is bread – staple food – but that bread could easily be taken and placed on our altar today and consecrated to become the Body of Christ. The Soup Kitchen volunteers handle bread in a way that feeds the poor and the homeless and, I guess that for some, when they have the host placed into their hands at Holy Communion they remember their own frailty and need of God’s love – the same love that they share through acts of kindness.
In the early Church the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist was understood as one and the same as the real presence of Christ in the Community of Faith – not called ‘the Church’ but the Mystical Body of Christ. Thomas Merton also said : “ If we do not love one another, we cannot eat the Bread of Life, we cannot come to the Father. It is only by loving one another that we allow the Father to draw us to Christ, for it is by love that we become one Mystical Body, one Christ.” (The Living Bread p.89)
This is expressed in the beautiful words of St Paul that we heard in our epistle reading today: “Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
My dear friends, let us live in that love! May it be the hallmark of our shared lives together at Saint Thomas Church. May our love of the Eucharist be turned into love of one another and, therefore, into love of those around us. May our receiving of Holy Communion make a real difference to our lives.
I am always pleased when people talk to me about Saint Thomas Church and tell me that the beauty of the building and the glory of its liturgy and music have drawn them in. But let me tell you what truly fills my heart with joy – it is when people tell me that they feel loved at Saint Thomas and that they have been touched by God’s love through the action and kindness of others.
If that is to be a reality for all of us then we must also become part of that life-giving bread which is the Body of Christ on earth. As the bread is transfigured and changed in the action of the Eucharist so we, Christ’s body on earth, are transfigured and changed through our Communion with him – becoming that staple diet for a world hungry and thirsty for transformation. We may not be able to feed the world’s hungry but our love can at least make a difference. Or, as Henri Nouwen goes on to say “By eating the Body of Christ, we become the living Christ and we are enabled to discover our own chosenness and blessedness, acknowledge our brokenness, and trust that all we live, we live for others. Thus we, like Jesus himself, become food for the world.” (Bread for the Journey p.223)
